On the 7th of June 2010, the war in Afghanistan surpassed the Vietnam war
to become America's longest war. 1099 US soldiers and 292 British soldiers
are among the 1812 NATO fatalities thus far. No one is counting how many
Afghans have been killed, but it must now run into tens of thousands.

The US has spent over $300 billion on the war in Afghanistan, where it
currently has over 100,000 troops, at a cost of $1 million a year for each
one.

Britain is spending £6 billion on close to 10,000 troops, who, at an
escalating rate of deaths and injuries, have no other purpose than to
bolster failed US war policies and to save the face of the politicians who
took this country into an unjustified and unwinnable war.

The war in Vietnam continued long after it was clear the US had lost, at a
cost of at least two million Vietnamese and Cambodian lives, with US
presidents insisting each year: "This is not a good year to end the war."

We saw signs this week of history repeating itself as Gen. Stanley A.
McChrystal's announced that an offensive planned for this June in Kandahar
City and surrounding districts is being delayed until September at the
earliest, because it does not have the support of the Kandahar population
and leadership. This is just one of a cascade of recent developments that
reinforce the conclusion that the war is futile.